Zips show TEAMWORK!

During our first team day students participated in a variety of team building activities, were trained in the ALICE method, and learned about some of the dangers of social media.

  

Organization and Study Skills and Time Management! Oh My!

During ACE this week and last week students discussed what organization, study skills, and time management meant to them.  Students also shared strategies that work for them.  Below is snippet of what Mrs. Moore's ACE talked about.

What is organization?

• being neat
• being prepared
• having everything in order so you can find what you need

What study skill do you use?

• flashcards
• test myself  and re-study the ones I missed
• study a little bit each day and review over everything the night before a test
• read some-take a break-read some-take a break, etc.
• playing games like Memory
• study with friends
• read important things more than once
• pay attention in class
• take notes in class
• underlining, highlighting, circling while I am reading

Define Time Management:

• making a schedule
• setting time limits for after school things including homework
• using time wisely and productively
• not getting distracted and wasting time
• planning ahead
• break up time

How to Find Lesson Plans/Homework on Schoology

Tech Tips: Conserving Battery life

Do you find yourself half way through the day and your battery is running low on your Chromebook or laptop?  Here are some tips on how to conserve battery life.

1. Charge your battery while you are doing homework and at night.
2. If you are charging your Chromebook and it is not in use, turn it off!
3. Turn your brightness down 
4. Shut your volume off when you aren't listening to anything
5. Close extra tabs when you don't need them.

Students! Treat Your Chromebook with Respect!

Student Council Elections

All students who were interested in representing Team Zips on the Student Council made campaign videos.  During our team day the videos were shown to all members of the team.  I will say that I was AMAZED at the effort and creativity of the videos.  Students then used Google Classroom to vote.  After all the votes were tallied, the two Student Council Representatives for Team Zips are Kate Lane and Max Wolter.  The two winning candidates' videos are below.

A Focus on Ancient Greece

This quarter in World History, we are mainly focusing on Ancient Greece. Two cities-states that we have spent the most time discovering about were Athens and Sparta.  Both cities were very different in the way they lived.  Some of the differences included the education, government, and roles of women.  We created a children’s book to show these differences using the online program Story Jumper.  The students worked in groups using Google Presentation to show how Persia grew into this Powerful Empire and the impact of the war on Greece.

We will be beginning the second part of the Quarter with the lasting impacts of Ancient Greece.

Math Update

In math we have finished a chapter on adding and subtracting rational numbers (integers, decimals, fractions). We are in the middle of the chapter on multiplication and division. 

Students received their logins for Digits, there was a delay because we were going to use a new platform, but it isn't working for us, so we switched back to the old version. However, students need to login from the junior high start page to mymathuniverse or type www.mymathuniverse.com and then choose the left hand version prior to 2014. From there they login to digits using mevsd###### and their password is firstinitiallastinitial######(the #is for their lunch code). These directions are posted on schoology under courses then math. Other updates, lesson plans, videos, power points, etc are located on the schoology course page as well. 

Manga high is an online computation and skills practice site that we are trying for the first time. Each student was given a login sheet with individual information -there is not one way to login so they have to keep that paper and I had suggested writing it on their master login sheet from Mr. Vollman.  The students seem to like challenging each other and trying to be the high scorer. There is a focus for students to become less calculator dependent for computation and we will work on that all year.

Courage

This quarter in English Language Arts our main focus is on courage.  The essential question that students are focusing on is:  During WWII, which historical character displays the most courage?  We are exploring how individuals, real and fictional, use words and actions to demonstrate courage.  Our courageous journey through literature started out with summer reading assignments and the play version of The Diary of Anne Frank.  All students have created a Multigenre paper that defines courage.  Next, Honors classes will be reading Farewell to Manzanar and ELA 7 classes will get to pick between the novels Daniel’s Story or Summer of My German Soldier.

Just Dance

All students on the Zips participated in Just Dance today.  This is one of our many talented dancers on Team Zips!

Positive School Climate

The National School Climate Council defines school climate as the quality and character of school life.  Last week in ACE class, students and teachers discussed what students can do to promote a positive school climate at MJHS.  The following are some of the responses students came up with.

• Students can be more kind and helpful to others.
• Students can help stop bullying.
• Students can try to spot things that are wrong and fix them.
• Students can be nice to others and have a positive attitude.
• Students can not become a bully.
• Students can stand up to bullying.
• Talk about problems instead of getting angry with others.
• Include everyone in activities.
• Follow the rules.
• Keep the school clean.
• Help others.
• Have fun after school events.
• Be friendly to everyone.
• Respect each other.
• Compliment each other.
• Cheer people on during rough moments.
• Always keep your hands to yourself.

Tech Tips

1. Make sure your device, case, charger, etc. have your name on it.
2. Make sure that your device is fully charged each morning.
3. Shut your device off when charging it.
4. When working on school related items make sure you are logged into your school Google account not your personal account.

New Science Curriculum

This year MJHS has adopted the SEPUP (Science Education for Public Understanding Program) curriculum.  This curriculum uses personal and societal issues to introduce and explore science concepts.  This issue-oriented approach helps students understand the everyday relevance of science.  It builds conceptual understanding and skills over time, utilizes cooperative learning skills that include hands-on laboratories and investigations, projects, class discussions, simulations, readings, and written and oral presentations.  This variety provides learning opportunities for students with different learning styles and stimulates all students to improve their laboratory, research, reading and writing skills.  

We will have classroom sets of materials and an on-line textbook that is available to students.  Check Schoolgy for information about accessing the on-line textbook and additional resources that we are utilizing.  

Team Day

The teachers on Team Zips are excited for our first team day, September 10th.  Students will travel with their ACE classes throughout the day and participate in a variety of activities.  Our theme for the day is TEAMWORK.  In addition to the team building activities students will elect Student Council representatives for our team, attend an assembly regarding cyberbullying/social media and be trained in the ALICE method.  Look for pictures of our team day next week.